


The Rising Odds

by Nununununu



Category: Original Work
Genre: Domestic, Don't copy to another site, Enemies to Lovers, Getting Together, Holding Hands, Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24867952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: Two months back, Sam had been the one hunting miscreants down. Now he can barely seem to go anywhere without tripping over them.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Retired Male Superhero/Male Supervillain Who Keeps Seeking Him Out Because He Misses Him
Comments: 20
Kudos: 69
Collections: Rare Pairs Exchange 2020





	The Rising Odds

**Author's Note:**

> For Cruria. I really liked your prompt for a mystery and thinking of how this might play out considering the pairing, and how they might get to the point of working together to try and solve it. It was also fun considering what a former hero might be up to now he's retired and how he and the villain might reach the point of _being_ a pairing to start with :)
> 
> (Originally posted 09/08; updated for author reveals)
> 
> Title taken from _Holding Out For A Hero_ by Bonnie Tyler.

Some days Sam just really wants to ask the world at large if he could _please_ no longer be bothered with this stuff because, seriously, there are younger, livelier heroes out there itching to gain experience and he’s been retired for coming up to two months now. All he wants is to be able to walk down the road without the villain of the day jumping out at him when he’s making a quick trip to return his niece’s latest collection of library books on his sister’s behalf and then on to the supermarket for groceries.

Seriously, his real-life identity when masked had supposedly been _secret_. Why was it that, now he was out of the business, every ne’er-do-well seemed set on making themselves known? Two months back, Sam had been the one hunting miscreants down. Now he can barely seem to go anywhere without tripping over them.

The remains of the alien blob rain down in vivid blue goo around Sam, a splodge getting him on the shoulder and splattering everywhere before he can evade – he hung his uniform up in the back of the wardrobe for the last time after saying his goodbyes to the other heroes in early June, and he’s growing tired of his newly purchased casual clothes getting ruined.

Still, this is how civilians must feel a lot of the time when they get caught in the middle of a battle – and Sam’s a civilian now. _Should_ be.

Brushing the goo off as best he can and mourning the loss of yet another shirt, Sam checks the state of his jeans (thankfully salvageable) and backpack (dripping with goo, but at least it’s got a waterproof lining inside so Jaylee’s library books are fine), and pats his belt for his trusty knife (the fuss the media had put up at first at the thought of a hero with something as prosaic as an ordinary knife almost doesn’t bear thinking on. Still, his powers are primarily restorative and villains don’t tend to think very much of that, so he’d needed _some_ means of defending himself, even if he’d never planned to use the thing. Also it sort of matched with his former villain counterpart’s choice of weapons, although that had obviously nothing to do with it).

“Right then,” That done, he whops a Healing Handprint on the poor sycamore the alien blob had initially flattened – sue him, so he likes trees – hefts his backpack up higher on his shoulder, and resumes heading for the library.

The sun cuts out a dozen steps later, an uncanny silence descending on the city to herald an unexpected eclipse, and Sam muffles a groan he doesn’t really mean.

“ _Really?_ ” The abrupt chill darkness in place of what had been a pleasant summer’s day isn’t exactly welcome, but it also isn’t _un_ welcome in the way the lesser villains of the day popping out at him are – this is something he’s been trying not to think too hard about over the past two months. He raises his voice to address the artificial night, “Theo? You might as well show yourself.”

“ _No one_ calls me that these days,” A sulky voice answers him as Theo slides out of the shadows behind him, making the back of Sam’s neck prickle, a familiar sensation where the _Cursed (K)night_ is concerned.

“I’m not calling you by your ridiculous codename,” Sam holds his fingers off from twitching towards his knife. He doesn’t _think_ Theo is out to stab him with one of his infamous Dark Blades, but he’s learned better than to presume even now he’s retired. He’d actually tried making friends with the _Cursed (K)night_ originally, a decade ago when they’d first encountered each other and Sam had been a newbie on the lookout for a hero partner, while Theo had been a gangly college graduate desperately trying to grow a goatee, cursed with being forever fresh faced despite having been a self-declared villain since the tender age of fifteen.

The sun snaps back into existence as Theo lets up on his signature ability, revealing him in all of his overblown villain outfit when Sam turns – sleek form-fitting dark armour, purple-plumed helmet and rich ankle-length cape, and Sam’s never going to admit that the other man wears it well, Theo having grown into his height a few years back.

Feeling decidedly shabby in comparison in his goo-streaked shirt, Sam scratches his stubble, tries not to check his former villain counterpart out too obviously, and offers Theo a nod in thanks for turning the lights back on, as it were.

Around them, people blink and shuffle cautiously up out of the civilian-typical duck-and-cover pose, shooting the _Cursed (K)night_ dubious looks and eyeing the random grizzled older guy with him curiously, before deciding the world isn’t about to end, literally or figuratively shrugging and going back to their daily lives.

Damn it, maybe Theo is why villains of the day keep targeting Sam – he should have known it would be something to do with the _Cursed (K)night_ , even if it’s just due to unintentional association.

“You planning a heist in the area or something, or are you just bored?” Sam doesn’t fully intend to ask to younger man this, but, like he’d said just now, _really?_ This is the third time Theo’s appeared out of the shadows on him this week, twice literally. Four times last week, each time armed with an increasingly unbelievable explanation for it. Twice the week before that –

The pattern goes on.

“What are you doing?” Theo ignores the question only to fire off one of his own, which is par for the course really. Resuming walking to the library a third time, Sam resists the urge to roll his eyes. Bored it is, then.

“Returning books for Jaylee,” He shrugs the shoulder bearing the bag strap in illustration, “Defeating goo monsters, apparently. Groceries.”

“Sounds _thrilling_ ,” Pursing his lips in apparent horror at the mundanity, Theo reaches into a suddenly appearing swirl of shadows and pulls out a coffee.

“You pay for that?” Sam arches an eyebrow.

“You’re welcome” Theo, astoundingly, presses the coffee into Sam’s hand. That done, he proceeds to catch of the former hero’s chin, kisses him, and pulls back looking immensely pleased with himself.

This has happened more times than it should have done since Sam retired – and in truth, a few times as well even before that. He should stop Theo – they’re outside in public and the media is already hung up on the _Cursed (K)night’s_ ‘mystery man’. _Should_ do.

Nah, he’s retired now. And even when he was an active hero – well, there are some things Sam feels quite strongly that the media has no business poking its nose into, the supposed ‘rules’ of heroing and villaining be damned.

“Theo –” This thus established, Sam feels free to grab hold of the top of the younger man’s armoured chestplate, haul him in and kiss him back in return. The sun flickers on and off a few times above them, which had been disturbing the first time it happened, but Sam mostly finds flattering now civilians knew it didn’t herald the apocalypse.

Every tree in the surrounding area also bursts into blossom at once despite being out of season for it, so there’s that too.

“Thanks for the coffee,” Steam curls up around his face as Sam sips at it after – dark, rich, just as he likes it. Just like a certain knight. _(K)night_. Whatever; it’s still a ridiculous codename. Not that his had been much better. He hides his grin in the cup.

“Why do you think these idiots keep jumping you?” Theo complains, when they’ve reached the library and a _new_ villain of the day decides to clamber out from a bush to attack Sam, one he goes to put down and finds stabbed with a swiftly conjured Dark Blade on his behalf.

Theo’s raised eyebrow dares him to make anything of it. Sam just snags the younger man’s hand.

“So much for you being the mastermind behind it then,” he shrugs as they push open the library’s double doors, “I was starting to reckon it was you messing about, bored.”

“Why do you always think I have to be _bored_ to want to be with you?” Theo hisses, scandalised, and Sam pauses.

“Shit, sorry,” Okay, yeah, that was a bit of a presumption, wasn’t it. Seeing as they’re – not dating, Sam wouldn’t call it dating, they’ve never done anything that would constitute that no matter how much he wants it, but –

Still. 

“Although I _am_ bored,” Theo spares the gaping librarian a dry look, haughtily raising his chin, while Sam digs in his backpack and finally gets to return his niece’s books, “Nothing’s as fun without you.”

“You’re not without me,” Snagging a couple of new books Jaylee might like, which is pretty much anything with printed words, Sam has the pleasure of seeing Theo blush and almost fall over his armoured self in the attempt to hide it.

“Team up with me to find out why you’re being targeted?” The younger man refuses to make eye contact as they trek back outside.

“I’m _supposed_ to be training to become a paramedic,” Sam has _plans_ for his retirement from the hero gig, ones that involve getting a job that pays actual real-life money, but –

Well. He can’t risk other civilians getting caught up in fights with the idiots who keeping inexplicably going for him, and it’s going to end up getting dangerous eventually. Besides, the thought of spending more time with Theo is –

“Yeah,” Grinning wider than ever, Sam tugs Theo’s hand up to his mouth to drop a kiss on the younger man’s knuckles, abruptly tired of pretending they’re still mostly just former hero and villain and nothing more, “I want to know what’s going on; let’s team up. And Theo – I miss you too. I want to spend more time with you as well.”

“ _S-shit_ ,” Theo actually nearly stabs himself in the foot with an accidentally conjured Dark Blade, he stumbles so much. He recovers a second after though, unable to fully quash his delighted smile despite his valiant attempt to look loftily unmoved, “Maybe you should just date me, then.”

“You know what?” Sam tugs Theo in close again, armour and all, “Maybe I should.”


End file.
